Google's Brain Team: 'AIs can be racist and sexist but we can change that'

Google’s Brain Team: ‘AIs can be racist and sexist but we can change that’

Google’s methodology could have applications in any scoring system, such as a bank’s credit-scoring system. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto In an age where data is driving decisions about everything from creditworthiness, to insurance and criminal justice, machines could well end up making bad predictions that just reflect and reinforce past discrimination. The Obama Administration outlined its concerns about this issue in its 2014 big-data report, warning that automated discrimination against certain groups could be the inadvertent outcome of the way big-data technologies are used. Using social networks or location data to assess a person’s creditworthiness could boost access to finance for people who don’t have a credit history. However, big-data techniques might also raise barriers to finance and, since a decision could be made by a proprietary algorithm, there’d be no…